West Bengal: Abhishek Banerjee Questioned For Nearly 5.5 Hours By CID In Signature Forgery Case

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee was interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for nearly 5.5 hours in connection with a signature forgery case at Bhabani Bhawan, the agency’s headquarters in Kolkata’s Alipore area.

As this happened late Wednesday night, Abhishek arrived at TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s residence.

The case stems from a complaint alleging irregularities in a resolution submitted to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly regarding the appointment of Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state assembly, Asima Patra and Nayna Bandyopadhyay as Deputy LoP, and Firhad Hakim as Chief Whip.

Abhishek Banerjee informed the West Bengal Assembly Speaker on May 9 that the party had taken the decision to appoint office-bearers during a meeting of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) legislative party.

Subsequently, on May 18, the Principal Secretary of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly wrote to Banerjee seeking submission of the minutes and resolution of the meeting, along with signatures of MLAs present during the decision-making process.

On May 20, Abhishek submitted a copy of the meeting resolution book with an attendance sheet containing the signatures of the members present in the concerned meeting, which mentioned that 70 MLAs were present at the meeting held on May 6.

On May 27, two TMC MLAs filed a complaint before the Speaker alleging that no resolution had been adopted regarding the LoP selection on May 6 and that they had only signed the meeting resolution book on May 19.

The complainants also alleged that the resolution dated May 6 was “manufactured and fabricated”, with as many as 14 signatures appearing in block letters. The CID has recorded statements of 13 MLAs whose “signatures were in block letters”.

As this happened, the TMC suspended the two MLAs – Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha for anti-party activities.

Based on a complaint by the Principal Secretary of the Assembly, Hare Street Police Station registered a case on May 27 under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) related to cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

CID took over the investigation on May 28. (ANI)